I live in Minnesota and have never heard of an "AC system," please enlighten me.
Small talk? I always wondered why people use weather as ice breaker (no pun) for conversations.
I moved to Houston after getting out of the Navy 7 years ago. The heat still kills me. Though, I will say after this last little cold front, I remembered why the hell I left Michigan. fuck the cold! I do tend to keep the AC around 75 during the summer though, and hardly ever go outside cause the heat sucks, and humidity just makes it worse.
We love our AC lol, it broke in our house one summer, and also one cold winter and that just totally sucked. Basically, in the summer, everyone stayed downstairs because it was just too hot lol. Same thing in that one winter, we mostly slept near the fireplace.
The cost of living down here is outrageously cheap. Just make sure you can deal with the heat.
I don't know so much about Cali, but when I had the opporitunity to move from Texas, I stayed here for a reason. Good weather, cheap price of living.
If you have a good AC you're set though, I keep mine around 65 lol.